What's Left Behind
by ButterflyMiko
Summary: Kurai and Reiko live in that same old town where everything seems to happen in Darren's life. When Darren and Kurda return to that town to investigate a murder, they come upon these women, despite how much they wanted to forget them.


_Firefly_. Darren Shan did remember her. She was a girl in his class back when he was a human. The other children used to pick on her because she was different. She used to be blamed whenever a class pet died, and then she would return, smiling, saying she had 'fixed' the pet. The animals were always alive after coming to see her. People said she was a witch.

But they called her firefly because of the way she was. Her nature had a _glow. _

Kurai Inoue was standing there by the crime scene he had come to see. Her blue eyes caught the light of the setting sun, and she stared sadly at the dead body. She wasn't there to get a story like the paparazzi, or to solve a case, like the cops. She was there for the spirit of the dead human. The girl that he had once, long ago, had a crush on, was in a miko's hakama. She was a priestess.

Kurai knelt, facing the sunset, and did last rites for the deceased. The widow came to her side and fell in tears to her knees. Kurai herself was straight faced and solemn. Her hair was tied up in high pigtails on top of her head, out of the way as she made consolation prayers for the deceased.

Darren could smell her blood, even from this distance. It smelled warm—no, white hot—and the salty smell of blood was absent. Her blood smelled sweet. So sweet. Like fresh cherry pie. Exactly that perfect, homemade smell. Darren's stomach rumbled. He hadn't fed for a few days, during this massacre. But he would not feed from her, despite how sweet she smelled.

Kurai was facing him now, and her eyes met his. She searched his face, eyes brimming with recognition. Darren was terrified. _Oh no! Does she recognize my face? Does she realize I'm the same Darren Shan from back then?_

"What do you think about this?" she said, frowning up at him.

"What do you mean?" he asked, carefully guarded. Darren wasn't about to be the vampire who got outed to a human.

"You're obviously an investigator," Kurai said. "So tell me who murdered that poor man. I wanna get my auric hands on the killer."

Darren looked at her curiously. "I am investigating. But I don't know yet."

She turned to leave, then turned and looked at him. "You look so familiar."

"I just have one of those faces," Darren covered quickly.

Kurai started to leave for a second time, then pouted and looked him straight in the eyes. "The murder…they keep talking about vampires."

A slow smile crept across his face. "There's no such thing as vampires.

—

Kurda Smahlt was a Vampire Prince, and lived in a nice victorian house. He had plenty of money and wasn't afraid to spend it. He lived dangerously like any vampire, and needed to use his money to buy privacy. Lately Darren Shan had been showing up all the time wanting to talk about the recent Vampaneze massacre on the town.

Reiko Inoue. He met her in the store. He was there buying bread and cheese. It was the only place that had the cheese he liked. She was bright, with a fiery spirit. She had green eyes and red hair, like a rose.

He bumped into her again. Her groceries went tumbling everywhere and she gasped. He could hear her hearbeat quicken. She smelled _delicious._ Like fresh vegetables. So wonderful.

"I-I'm so sorry," Reiko quickly tried to fix rebag her veggies.

Kurda was suddenly on the ground with her putting tomatoes, lettuce, and onions into the bags before they could get bruised.

"It's not your fault," Kurda said. "I've seen you around, but never got the courage to speak with you."

Kurda couldn't believe he had said that to Reiko. He only knew her name because he had heard her sister, Kurai the miko, say her name to her. He was distracted by her scent and this was just getting ridiculous.

But then something possessed him to help her up and it was all worth it as he felt her strong warm hand in his.

"My name is Reiko," Reiko said to him. "Reiko Inoue."

They were close, within kissing distance. Kurda could hear her heartbeat in stereo. He could smell her blood in an overwhelming assault on his senses.

"I am Kurda Smahlt."


End file.
